I am declaring today, Monday, Observation day. Maybe every Monday should be Observation day. It is a good day for new beginnings. So, what I am going to do today, as much as my wee little self will allow, is observe negative thoughts, feelings, as they arise. Instead of moving into them, moving into reaction, I am going to simply observe how it feels in my body. If I have an aversion to a person or a situation, I will observe it. If I experience sadness or anger as a result of a situation, I will observe it.
Of course this means there has to be some space between the feeling and the reaction, a space in which I can decide to observe, and not react. And if the space evades me and I become aware that I am already reacting, I will attempt to simply stop in mid-reaction.
And I will remember to take it easy on myself if I do react, because this is, after all, a very long journey. There is no simple flip of a switch.
And Rumi says:
“Until you have kept your eyes
and your wanting still for fifty years,
you don’t begin to cross over from confusion.”
This is comforting to me. There is no hurry to get it all right today. There is just practice, and more practice, and a further relaxing into the journey.
If you do try today as Observation day, let me know how it goes for you.
November 10, 2008 at 11:08 am
This is a wonderful idea, Molly.
Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?
Barry
November 10, 2008 at 11:23 am
Good question, Barry. I am nothing, I am nothing, I am nothing.
November 10, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Good post, Molly!
There’s no I, there’s no I, there’s no I. It’s only in our deluded minds. Aye!
November 10, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Right, Uku, so I guess its just:
Nothing, Nothing, Nothing.
I so love my meditator friends. You guys make the journey light.
Thank-you.
November 10, 2008 at 8:47 pm
When i saw Llama Surya Das a few weeks ago here in Santa Cruz one of his main points was that practice expands the amount of time between thought or stimulus and reaction. Each time we can bring our awareness back to the present from our stimulus or thought we experience even a second of elightenment. Good stuff here Molly Brown.
November 11, 2008 at 10:31 am
Good point Matt. If we don’t practice, we don’t have that space available to us, no matter how much we may want it. Kind of like if we don’t exercise our physical bodies, then we cannot have a healthy physical being.